Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 26) — A lawmaker on Wednesday found fault with the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) slow-moving investigation into the 990-kilo shabu haul, raising concern also with police officials having conflicting statements on what really happened.
“Your investigation would take almost [half] a year na. At stake ‘yung reputation ng organization (Your reputation is at stake),” Antipolo City 2nd District Representative and committee vice-chair Romeo Acop, a former police officer, said during the hearing of the committee on dangerous drugs.
This came after PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management director Maj. Gen. Eliseo Cruz said they could not provide an exact timeline for the investigation.
Cruz said the PNP still needs to establish strong evidence against the personalities involved in the massive shabu haul last October 2022.
“We need witnesses, physical evidence. We have to establish more evidence against them,” the PNP official said.
During an interview with CNN Philippines earlier, Cruz said 49 personnel of the PNP, including its former Drug Enforcement Group head PBGen. Narciso Domingo, would face charges over their alleged involvement and “cover-up” in the ₱6.7-billion shabu haul.
READ: Ex-PDEG director, 48 other personnel to face charges over shabu haul and ‘cover-up’
In October last year, authorities arrested now-dismissed Police Master Sergeant Rodolfo Mayo Jr. The police seized 990 kilos of shabu from the WPD Lending Office in Tondo, Manila, an establishment allegedly owned by Mayo.
Conflicting remarks
Police officials questioned in the hearing also gave contradicting statements on the arrest of Mayo during the drug operation.
PCol. Julian Olonan, chief of the PNP Drug Enforcement Group Special Operations Unity in Region 4-A said he received a call from PCapt. Jonathan Sosongco on Oct. 8 last year.
During the call, Sosongco told Olonan that they had arrested Mayo and confiscated two kilos of shabu in a buy-bust operation in Bambang, Manila.
But when the House committee asked Sosongco for details of the arrest operation which he headed, he denied that he arrested Mayo.
\”Obviously may conflict sa statement ninyo ni Olonan. Dalawa lang ibig sabihin niyan, isa sa inyo nagsisinungaling [Obviously, there’s a conflict in your statements. That would mean one of you is lying],\” said Surigao Del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, who chairs the House committee on dangerous drugs.
Sosongco said he went to the office around 4:45 p.m., when he saw the vaults containing shabu, but Barbers’ committee presented a screenshot of the CCTV footage where the police official was seen as early as 1:21 p.m. in the area.
Police officials allegedly involved in the issue have different versions of why Mayo was freed after the arrest.
\”Police Lt. Col. Arnolfo Ibañez, the immediate commander of Mayo, was the one who assured me that we would yield a bigger warehouse of illegal drugs through the use of Mr. Mayo,\” Domingo told the committee. \”At that particular time, I believed there is indeed another warehouse of shabu kasi nga tinuro, nilaglag ni Gonzales si Mayo na bata ni Ibañez…gustong gumanti ni Colonel Ibañez, ituro na rin ‘yung bodega ni Gonzales [because Gonzales pointed at Mayo — who was under Ibañez — Ibañez wanted to take revenge and pointed at the warehouse of Gonzales].\”
\”Ang pinag-uusapan namin ano ang ikakaso kay Mayo…Wala kaming pinag-usapan na papakawalan si Mayo [What we talked about was the case that we will be filing against Mayo, and not freeing him],\” PLt. Col. Glenn Gonzales of the Quezon City Police District said of the incident.
\”Now, you are giving statements contrary to your co-officers and members of the Philippine National Police, what a spectacle,\” Acop also said on the different versions of testimonies, specifically on the involvement of the questioned cops in the operations.
Mayo and his alleged accomplice Ney Atadero also faced the committee but they invoked their right against self-incrimination most of the time lawmakers asked them a question.
According to the National Police Commission, its investigation on the alleged cover-up is ongoing, promising that it will help in building the case to hold erring cops accountable.
The House committee suspended its hearing, which ran to over seven hours, and conducted an executive session with PNP officials.
